


trains, hotpots and the night sky

by nanaview



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Strangers to potential lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:35:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25898293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanaview/pseuds/nanaview
Summary: From the OTP prompt generator: Person A and Person B met on a train when Person B falls asleep on Person A's shoulder.orJaemin wants nothing but to feel the warm comfort of his bed. A certain boy enters the scene, thinking the same, and makes do with his shoulder.
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Na Jaemin
Comments: 16
Kudos: 98





	trains, hotpots and the night sky

**Author's Note:**

> Edit: I fixed some typos and errors in grammar :))

It was a tiring day at school for Na Jaemin. Being the president of their science club is demanding enough on a normal day but the science fair and exhibits is coming up so he’s busier than ever. It was already late when he had finished his work in their club room and took the train home. He practically dragged his feet on the way to the station, shoulders heavy from his responsibilities and eyes droopy over the lack of sleep for the past few days. He’s grateful that it’s the weekend the next day and he can finally get some much-needed rest.

The train has noticeably few passengers past 7pm on a Friday. Jaemin takes a seat on one empty line of chairs placing his bag securely on his lap. He hears his stomach growl but it’ll take another half hour before he gets to his stop. For now, he tries to distract himself with some music. He can’t wait to finally experience the warm comfort of his bed and sleep till noon the next day. Though perhaps he can already start catching some sleep in the train.

Before he could even close his eyes, he caught sight of another passenger that had just entered. The boy appears to be smaller than him and his uniform tells him that he’s from a nearby Private school. He has raven black hair that does not do well in hiding his poor drowsy face. He even has a hard time in walking, taking slow unsteady steps, with one of his bag straps falling loosely on his shoulder. He basically looks even more dead than Jaemin. He feels a sense of empathy, life is truly hard for everyone alike.

His eyes trail to the boy as he continues to struggle in getting by in the carriage. The door closes behind him and the train began to move not helping at all in his sense of balance. Jaemin almost stood up to help him but luckily, he steadied his footing, somewhat. He can barely keep his eyes open but he had finally managed to take a seat with a thud. That seat being next to Jaemin himself.

Now this is weird. Jaemin is sure there’s an unspoken rule among passengers that when you’re in an empty house, you’d sit at least one chair apart from the other person. Or else it would be creepy like the situation he has right now. The boy made himself comfortable in his seat and hugged his backpack, not even aware of how he made the person beside him become wide awake from almost dozing off seconds ago. He closes his eyes and hung his head backwards, getting the sleep Jaemin was supposed to have.

And so Jaemin eyes him warily. He tightens his grip to his bag. The boy seems harmless enough but who knows what he might do if he lets his guard down. He turns to look at the few other passengers, his eyes seeking help. But the others were minding their own business, judging the situation as not alarming enough.

He decides that he’ll just move to the other line of chairs and give the boy some space. He was about to when a weight fell on his shoulder. And if he was wary a few minutes ago, now he wasn’t even breathing with how much he’s freaking out inside. The boy, as if feeling the back of the chair as not soft enough for a comfortable sleep, has conveniently moved his head on Jaemin’s shoulder instead. He tries to shrug it off but the boy snuggled even closer, his hair tickling Jaemin’s neck, blissfully unaware of the uncomfortable situation he put Jaemin in.

Jaemin is stuck on his place because he can’t really push the boy away. That would be too rude for him to do. He doesn’t exactly want to ruin someone’s sleep especially when he was craving some just a while ago as well. Frankly, he’s also too tired to be dealing with any of this. So instead, he sucks it up and lets his playlist distract him again from his awkward position.

His playlist shuffles next to a sad song. It’s one that’s perfect for rainy days. It’s one that would make you remember your past breakups, the what ifs and could’ve been, and cry till you wet your shirt. Except Jaemin hasn’t had any lovers. And he isn’t crying as well. So why does he feel something wet on his shirt?

No. He doesn’t even want to look to his side. He closes his eyes and begins massaging his temples. No way he thinks, how worse could this situation get? This stranger not only had the audacity to sleep on his shoulder but he also drooled on it. He steadies his breath, he’s had enough and he’s going to tell this stranger a piece of his mind. Jaemin turns his head to the boy but the sight of his peacefully soft face with his cheek squished onto his shoulder pushed back every word he was meaning to say. And Jaemin still doesn’t have the heart much less the energy to push him off.

Once again, he looks away and closes his eyes. This is just the rain he thinks. It is raining on one side of his shoulders. _She’s in the rain_ , the next song plays _._

“SIR PLEASE WAKE UP”

He jolts on his seat. He doesn’t know when he had fallen asleep. It takes some time for him to adjust to the lights and remember where he was and what he was doing before dreaming of trains and cute boys and drools. Standing before him is a middle-aged man who must be the operator.

“This is the last stop, we’re gonna need you and your friend to exit the train already.” He says this with an annoyed look on his face, he clearly wants to finish his shift and go home already if it weren’t for him and his friend.

Jaemin does a double take. Wait, friend? As far as Jaemin remembers, his friends had already went home before him. He turns to look. It dawned to him that he didn’t dream of that situation after all. Apparently ‘his friend’ had woken up earlier and is currently looking anywhere but him.

There was silence between them as they exited the train. The boy just keeps looking at the ground as they stand by the platform on the station. He’s also looking awfully fidgety. Jaemin guesses that he’s embarrassed from what happened, and well, he can’t blame him. Even Jaemin is embarrassed at himself for joining the boy in dreamland when he could’ve done something to prevent them from missing their stop. Then again, he doesn’t exactly know where this boy lives. Or perhaps is that why the boy is uneasy? He missed his stop and now he’s miles away from his home. Now guilt sits at the pit of Jaemin’s stomach.

He sneaks a glance to the boy beside him. At the very least Jaemin wants to ease his nerves by telling him it’s alright. Before he could speak though, his eyes carefully land on his shoulder and sees how it became even more wet. He was about to look disgusted but he caught a whiff of it smelling like sanitizer.

“Look I’m sorry for this mess,” the boy suddenly speaks up much to his surprise.

“I just had a really really hectic day at school, we had a bunch of tests and there’s also our art projects then there's this incident earlier and it’s all so tiring and I happened to let it get the best of me but I know this doesn’t excuse my actions and I’m just so so sorry please forgive me,” he says in one breath and finishes with a deep bow.

Jaemin takes his time processing all that. First of all, the boy has a very warm and soothing voice. Second, now that he’s facing the top of his head, his black raven hair looks so fluffy that he resists the urge to pat it and get a feel for how soft it is. And with how the boy is actually sincerely apologizing to him, he feels even more guilty for making him this sorry because technically he isn’t the only one at fault.

His thoughts made him actually forget to respond so the boy lifts his head to finally look at him. And Jaemin sees the brightest most beautiful set of pleading eyes coupled with pink soft-looking lips that almost make him look like he’s pouting. He couldn’t help how his heart melts again at the sight. He could stare at the boy’s soft features forever.

He wills himself to not get too distracted of the boy’s beauty. “It’s alright.”

“I should be sorry too, I could’ve woken you up but I also fell asleep and now we both ended up here. It’s pretty funny if you think about it though.”

Jaemin offers a bright smile to the boy to lighten up the mood. He thinks there’s nothing they can do now so might as well laugh at their situation. He hopes his positivity reaches him but that didn’t seem to be the case. Instead of returning a smile, the boy just gapes and Jaemin doesn’t know what to do with that reaction.

“So uh yeah,” he puts his hands together making a sound that caught the boy’s attention. “Let’s just put the past behind us, shall we? By the way I’m Jaemin.”

“Ah I’m Renjun,” he responds awkwardly, still not meeting Jaemin’s eyes.

“Okay Renjun, where was your stop supposed to be?” He figures he can at least accompany Renjun to his home before going back to his place himself. He would never forgive himself if he lets Renjun travel alone for how many miles because who knows what might happen to him along the way. He wants to make sure he’ll be safe.

“Um… My stop is here actually.”

 _Oh._ So he’s the only one who missed his stop then. Jaemin feels a sense of betrayal. He was so guilty but it turns out he never wronged anyone. He’s the only one inconvenienced by this after all. And Renjun must have read his reaction because the next moment he’s bowing and apologizing to him again.

“I’M REALLY REALLY SORRY”

“Hey no it’s okay-”

“I panicked, you were already laying your head on top of me and I drooled on you then I had to clean your shoulders and we were already reaching this stop but I-”

“I SAID IT’S OKAY” He places his hands on Renjun’s shoulder and shakes him, cutting him off from another series of explanation.

That made Renjun purse his lips. He looks at the hands on his shoulder. Jaemin belatedly puts his arms back to the side and determinedly looks away from Renjun, feeling shy from touching the boy. They became silent again.

Then, a weird noise made its way between them. It’s Jaemin’s.

“Say Renjun… where’s a good place to eat here?”

“You don’t have to stay with though. You can go home if you want.”

“No, I’ll also have my dinner here.”

Renjun recommended a hotpot restaurant owned by his friend’s family. Their journey towards there was mostly filled with awkward silence, they exchanged words only about the direction and the price and food at the place. Renjun seems to still be a little shy because of the train incident especially after finding out that only Jaemin missed his stop. He’s still boring holes at their menu even after they had finished ordering. Jaemin can’t bear with the awkwardness anymore.

“So… where are you from exactly?” Unexpectedly, it was Renjun who broke the ice. He plays with his fingers as he peeks at Jaemin across him. Jaemin smiles at his effort.

“I’m only from one stop before, I’ll just take a taxi back.”

“Do you want me to pay-”

“No, it’s really okay and _don’t_ say you’ll pay for my food.”

“But I want to make it up to you.”

“And you already did by taking me here. I was starving you know, you heard how loud it growled before,” Jaemin said with a laugh which seems to loosen Renjun’s tension.

Their food arrives just then. Renjun takes charge in mixing the ingredients. Jaemin watches him for a few minutes, admiring the way the other’s eyes lit up to the smell of the hotpot. Someone clearly has a favorite. This makes him wonder how delicious the food is.

Renjun gives him a serving. Their hands brushed as he got his bowl and if Jaemin’s heart fluttered in that simple action like that in a cliché romance story, he blames it on the boy’s soft hands. Renjun is looking expectantly across him though, eagerly waiting for his reaction about its taste. He takes a sip, and then some more because that is one of the best soups he’s ever had.

“This is delicious!” Renjun beamed at that.

“I know right! I always come here whenever it gets too stressful at school.”

“For real, thank you,” Jaemin smiles at his bowl. He really is thankful, it’s just what he needed after a long day.

They dig in after that, exchanging contented hums and comments from the warmth and the savory taste of meat and vegetables and dumplings and everything. They let the hotpot wash away all their stress, eating as if they hadn’t eaten anything the whole day and as if they’ll never be able to tomorrow.

“Wah it’s been so long since I’ve been to a good restaurant.” Jaemin takes a break. There’s still some food left but he figures he needs a breather. He sits back and relaxes on his chair, rubbing his stomach contentedly.

“Hm? School must be pretty busy for you too then,” Renjun said while putting another dumpling in his mouth. It makes his cheeks puff. Cute, Jaemin thinks.

“Yeah I’m part of our science club and we’re preparing this event you see.”

“Oh I’m from the art club, seems we’re not much alike.”

The other begs to differ. “What do you mean we’re not? Aren’t we the two poor and tired souls who fell asleep on the train together? Seems pretty alike to me.”

And Renjun laughs at that shaking his head at their absurd situation a while ago. Jaemin thinks that even his laugh is pretty. It’s like when rain turns to sun, when the clouds make way and the angels start singing. Or something like that. He simply likes Renjun’s laugh, it caused some warm fuzzy feeling within his chest and he decides he wants more of it. So Jaemin leans in, chin on his hand and smiles as he begins telling Renjun how his day went before their fateful meeting on that train.

As it turns out, they really are much more alike than they thought. Renjun, like Jaemin, is the president of their art club as well as a model student that has expectations to meet. He relates when Jaemin told him how he’s always the one cleaning up after someone. Renjun tells him about the incident earlier when a member from his club bought a different color of paint. They all turned to him to think of a different concept and he was really pressured all day. Thankfully, their poster still looked fine even though it wasn’t as thought out as their original plan. Jaemin then muses that Renjun must be quite the genius to pull it off to which the other denies.

In fact, there was also this story before their midterms when Renjun pulled an all-nighter for a whole week just to review so he could maintain his grades. He’s no genius he says, it’s just that his efforts somehow pay off. He adds that he was practically dead after the exams and was lying on his bed all day. Jaemin can definitely say he experienced the same. He gets himself high on caffeine every weekend before their exams. Renjun does not think it was a very healthy thing to do but Jaemin says he’s in no position to judge his habits when he’s just as bad as him. Renjun complains that he’s worse and just like that, they’ve become a bickering mess. It was pretty pointless fight, one that ends with laughter soon filling the air along with the smell of the near-empty bowl of hotpot.

Their night continued on like that. Thoughtless conversations. Meaningless banters. An odd sense of comfort found between strangers. If they flirted somewhere along the lines, then they’d blame it on anything from the fuzziness in their hearts and the way the other’s smile causes more and more butterflies in their stomachs the longer the night went on. Who knew Jaemin would find the person who slept and drooled all over his shoulder be so endearing? Who knew that Renjun who was as shy and embarrassed as he can get two hours ago, was now making jokes and laughing his heart out at whatever Jaemin says? Who knew that two kindred spirits tangled in a misfortune would eventually become the best part of their sad and tiring day?

They didn’t want to leave if they can help it. But the restaurant closes at 10pm so they never really had the choice. They stood still for a while in front the place. Neither daring to take another step to fully end the night. It was Jaemin who speaks up this time.

“So… where are you from exactly?”

Renjun lets out a giggle at Jaemin’s choice of words mirroring what he said a few hours ago.

“I already told you though, I’m just from around here.”

“I mean I can walk you home before I take a ride.”

“Ah it’s late already, you don’t have to-”

“I want to.”

He really wants to, anything just to make their time together a little longer. So Renjun lets him, a shy smile making its way on his face. Jaemin also sees a faint blush on his cheeks but he doesn’t comment on it for he feels that he’s looking the same. They made another short journey towards Renjun’s home.

They begin chatting again about anything under the sun, or well stars for that matter. Renjun shares he believes in aliens. That got Jaemin stopping his tracks and bursting out a laugh. Renjun gets annoyed at him so he walked faster, pouting and leaving him behind. But Jaemin makes it a point that he’ll listen to him anyways because it’s cute even though it’s absurd. This earned him a smack on his arm.

From aliens, they talk about the stars and from the stars, they talk about their dreams. Jaemin dreams to be a doctor whereas Renjun either wants to be an artist or a psychologist, he hasn’t made up his mind yet. They talk about the upcoming CETs, the universities they want to get into, and their life after graduation. They talk about the far future; things high schoolers wouldn’t ponder on a normal day in school when you already have too much on your plate at the present. There’s just something in Renjun’s presence that makes Jaemin want to let all his heart out. And he walks a little slower, even begs time to do the same.

They eventually reached Renjun’s home. They reached the end of their fateful night. Jaemin looks back to all the things that had happened. He wanted so bad to go home from school but now he can’t seem to even say goodbye. But he has to, it really is getting late.

“Well this is it Renjun.” They’re facing each other directly at the gate of Renjun’s house.

“Yeah… We’re really okay with the train incident, right?”

He shakes his head. “How many times do I have to tell you that it's alright?”

The other nods at that with a smile. They stood still for a moment and looked up at the stars. Unlike before, he enjoys this moment of silence even when the time is ticking on them. Last he checked, it was already 10:23pm on his phone. Then Jaemin gets the idea. “No wait I take that back.”

“Huh?” Renjun snaps his head back to look at him surprised, then dejected saying, “I thought we bonded over hotpot…”

“You can make it up to me though.”

Renjun raises his eyebrow at this.

“What are you getting at?”

“Give me your number.” Jaemin shoves him his phone.

“Because this doesn’t have to be it after all, I had a great time today beyond sleeping on the train and missing my stop. I’ve never felt this relaxed in a while, I don’t even know how and why I became comfortable with you so fast but it was nice.”

“And so, if it’s okay with you, I’d like for us to meet again.”

It takes another moment of silence, a moment for him to question his choices whether if it was alright for him to ask or if he was crossing the line or if he had already messed up. Then Renjun interrupts his thoughts, beaming at him with the smile he has grown so fond of and voicing the words he had hoped he’ll say.

“I’d love to!”

It was a tiring day for Na Jaemin. One even made more so by a certain boy who conveniently made a pillow of his shoulder on the train. But as he lay on the warm comfort of is bed, he feels none of the tiredness he felt before. Instead, he finds himself still feeling giddy and high from the eventful day he had because the boy who had conveniently bore his weight on his shoulder also conveniently lifted all his burdens off of it.

He smiles like a fool looking through his phone, his latest conversation filled with promises of tomorrow with that certain lovely boy named Renjun.

**Author's Note:**

> It’s my first time writing and I don’t know what I’m doing. Please spare some criticisms in the comments to help me improve, thank you!


End file.
